I want to report on my recent lunch at Kumai. They offer a sashimi set lunch for $20 including only 11 pieces - 3 tuna, 3 salmon, 3 butterfish, and 2 octopus. The fish was served too cold, almost from-frozen. I was extremely disappointed. This is the first time they have slipped so drastically in quality and taste. I didn't say anything to the server and will give them another chance because of their excellent track record, but I certainly felt insulted.

When I was there last (and this was probably two months ago now) the hostess/waitress was the same as always. She recognized us and immediately let us know that they would not be able to serve sake to us that evening (like my sake with my sashimi, what can I say ;) ...we stayed, of course, but I was appreciative that she let us know before seating us.

We didn't ask too many questions, but she informed us that they there was a new manager and they would not be able to serve alcohol for the time being. The sushi chef behind the counter was the same as always. Don't know how things have evolved since then, though..

Yes, I have the same experience as yours with the sashimi set at Kumai, it is certainly not good value compared to other lunch set they have in there. But the quality of other lunch set for raw food offerings is in general pretty good, I like the ume sushi set ($14) with a order of uni sushi ($7.5), the uni there is always good.

Today I had the chu-toro don set lunch for $18.5, which is pretty good in value except it is a bit chewy on some piece. I have not heard about the "new management", the chef and the waitress are the same, and the qualify of the food there is not much different from 1 year ago.